Technology -Infrastructure

E-Business applications introduce a new set of external dependencies, a new set of external users and stringent problem management, availability management and performance management requirements. Because eBusiness processing involves the linkage of internal processes with external processing and services, organizations need to extend their monitoring and management capabilities beyond the firewall. New approaches to network systems management, NSM, in combination with traditional tools and processes, are critically required.

E-Business applications create dependencies on external systems and services that need to be managed if availability and performance requirements are to be met. The eBusiness infrastructure represents the most complex computing environment. Third parties may also provide some elements of an eBusiness transaction, content, authentication or payment processing, in the form of services. Because eBusiness applications are the external manifestation of an enterprise’s business processes, managing availability and performance needs to be a critical business goal.

The scope of eBusiness IT infrastructure management is expanding. When we look at the infrastructure that is needed to support eBusiness, we see many familiar elements, such as servers and network elements, being used in complex, new ways. The new elements of eBusiness are the applications and business processes being executed across enterprises. These new interdependent processes, are scattered across a network and among multiple enterprises, complicate the management of availability and performance.

New approaches to application monitoring are critical. Many eBusiness applications comprise internal elements, under an enterprise’s control, and external elements, under the control of others. This situation differs from traditional client/server processing and requires new approaches to application monitoring and management. Enterprises need to employ top-down, externally focused management products and services, in combination with traditional bottom-up, network and systems management (NSM) instrumentation.

Testing the user experience is also critical feedback for management. Positive customer experience at the web site is vital for a growing number of enterprises. Although web site design and content depth are important, positive customer experience also depends on the availability and performance of the site. Therefore, monitoring and managing web application response time and site availability as experienced by the end-user have become key operations capabilities. A growing number of enterprises use services and software products that either externally simulate or directly measure user experience. The leading NSM vendors also provide products for managing this environment. Resolving User Problems E-business often involves external customers acquiring products, receiving information or communicating with an enterprise via the Internet. The enterprise must help the customers through any problems that may occur with its site or applications. This assistance represents a major new class of service that needs to be delivered by the customer service and support and the internal IT consolidated service desk organizations.

It is important to the enterprise to manage and understand the data available. Within most enterprises, the eBusiness operations environment is the most intensely monitored. Mountains of data about business and IT infrastructure activity are collected every day by a disjointed set of tools. Although this data is valuable to a specific target audience, the business, technical groups or service provider managers, greater knowledge can be gained through a combination of business and infrastructure monitoring.

American CIT is experienced in assisting world-class enterprises strategically design, develop, implement, tune and refine, their eBusiness infrastuctures.